Leprechauns at Hogsmeade
by Overhill
Summary: Hermione spends an unusual day at Hogsmeade Hall, serving at the Expiated Leprechaun Convention. Oneshot. Happy St. Patrick's Day!


**Leprechauns at Hogsmeade**

_by Overhill, who is just playing around in Rowling's world. Written for a challenge at SH. Happy St. Patrick's Day!_

_----_

"Miss Granger, stay for a moment, please?" Professor Flitwick asked.

Hermione stopped packing up her books to look over to her teacher, while the rest of the class continued to leave. Ron and Harry gave her puzzled glances, but disappeared quickly into the hallway.

After the crowd left, she went up to the teacher's desk. Professor Flitwick smiled.

"I'm issuing you an invitation to act as a student hostess at the Expiated Leprechaun Convention at Hogsmeade this Saturday. I think you would do a very nice job of it, and would gain a good education seeing 'the little people' close up." The very short man smiled up at her.

Hermione Granger's first thought was of a girl in her parents' dental practice who had Donohue Syndrome, commonly called Leprechaunism, and wondered how she would be at Hogsmeade.

Then she remembered that she was in the magical world, where leprechauns are real. She shifted her thinking and her memories to the World Cup earlier that year, but things had been hectic, and she missed seeing them up close, and with all the confusion about Harry's becoming a Triwizard Champion, had not thought about them since.

She'd heard about them before she came to Hogwarts, but that knowledge was as murky as any other magical thing she had known then. She had read about them in her textbooks, they had been mentioned in Professor Lupin's class, and Hagrid had told a story or two about them. She had learned that they were Irish, that they had relatives in Japan and Mexico, and that they were very little, less than a foot tall. Like merpeople, they were classified as "beasts", but were human in appearance and speech. And they had pots of gold stashed around at the ends of rainbows, but she didn't know how true that was.

_This would be a perfect time to learn more about them,_ she thought, _and would be a nice break from Harry and Ron's falling-out. _

"Mr. Finnigan, and a few other select students will also be in attendance. Mr. Finnigan has done this before, so if you have any questions, you may ask him." The Professor said.

"Yes, I'll do it," Hermione replied.

Seamus Finnigan was in the common room, joking around with Fred and George when she arrived.

He spotted her as she came in the door, and hurried over to her. "Did you accept?" he asked, then without waiting for a reply, said, "I suggested to him that you might like the job." He gave her his broad Irish grin. "I think you'll find it absolutely fascinating."

-----

On Saturday morning rain pounded the castle windows. The ceiling of the Great Hall was dark with clouds and rain that never came below the tops of the windows. Hermione dreaded the walk to the village, but grimly picked up her cloak from the bench and soldiered out to the Great Doors.

There was a small group of seven students waiting there already, Cedric Diggory, Seamus Finnigan, a girl from Beauxbaton, a boy from Durmstrang, another boy from Ravenclaw, and a girl from Slytherin, whom she did not know, and a seventh year girl from Hufflepuff

"She's here!" someone shouted.

"She's late," someone else responded.

"I'm early," Hermione protested.

"That you are," Seamus said with a grin. "We just like spending as much time as we can there, so we always gather a bit before time."

"You could have told me," she said with a scowl, as she wrapped her cloak about her.

She then noticed that she was the only one with a cloak, and that the rest were grinning at her. "What?" she asked.

The others made no reply as Cedric and Seamus opened the doors.

Hermione gasped. The sky was blue, bluer than she had ever seen it before, and the grass was green, greener than she could have imagined. As if in a dream, she stepped out onto the almost dried steps and started down the path to the village.

The Forbidden Forest was covered with rainbows, and she thought she could see unicorns playing in its shadows.

"The Little People are here," Seamus said, smiling. Hermione found herself smiling too, for the first time in weeks, she realized. The air smelled wonderful, and her heart felt light, and her feet, lighter, as she tripped to the village with the others. Most of the other Hogwarts students were Irish-born, and their brogues got stronger the closer they came to Hogsmeade.

She noticed Cedric walking beside her.

"Please don't mind my asking, but are you Irish-born, too?"

"No, I'm coming to meet my dad. He'll be representing the Ministry," he replied.

"Minister Fudge couldn't make it?" she asked.

"He wasn't invited. The Leprechauns don't like him, but they do like my dad. Anyway, Leprechauns are part of his department."

Hermione tried to remember everything she could that she'd re-read about in the past few hours, but was distracted by a pair of unicorn foals that came galloping out and then back to the forest again.

"Leprechauns are classified as 'beasts' in part because they refuse to have any political connections with the Wizarding world. They threatened to cut off the nose of anyone who sticks it where it doesn't belong, namely in their business. He-who-must-not-be-named, it is said, tried to recruit them, and was given that same warning."

Hermione tried to frown as she thought, but couldn't. "So why are they in Hogsmeade?"

"Party time," Cedric said, grinning. "They do love to party."

Some of the students started sneezing. "Why are we sneezing like this?" the Beauxbaton student asked.

"The magic is changing," the Ravenclaw explained. "It's tickling your nose as it gets stronger. You'll get used to it, and the sneezing will stop."

The largest rainbow Hermione had ever seen was arched into the village. Unlike other rainbows, it didn't move as she got closer, but stayed with one end on the roof of Hogsmeade Hall.

Hogsmeade Hall was a large building, built for village gatherings, feasts, concerts, and plays. Music could be heard through its stout walls, and even though it was still morning, light spilled from the windows. Hermione wished that she could sing.

The group went to the back door. Madam Rosmerta was directing deliveries of bottles and kegs; other trades people were delivering foodstuffs. One leprechaun was standing at the door, dressed in the traditional get-up, paying gold galleons out and collecting receipts.

"These are real gold Goblin galleons, aren't they, not the…" one man started to ask, staring doubtfully at the coins.

"The Goblins will get us if they aren't," the wee man replied. "We do our business properly, don't want any cursing from our suppliers. And here's a bit of luck to show that we mean you well," he added as he handed a different coin to the man. "That now, will disappear in a bit, but it'll leave a trace of luck behind as it was given, not stolen." The Leprechaun smiled and nodded, and turned his attention to the next tradesman. The first hefted the coins in his hands as he studied them, and then went off to his pony and cart.

Cedric and Seamus had been watching the whole exchange. "Must have just moved here," said Cedric.

"No, or maybe he's lived in Scotland his whole life," mused Seamus.

"Maybe not everyone has spent his or her whole lives around Leprechauns," the Beauxbaton student retorted. "That was a nasty surprise at the World Cup, having the gold disappear as it did."

Hermione remembered Ron's shock at the disappearing gold, and said nothing.

"Where's your father?" the girl from Hufflepuff asked, changing the subject.

"He and Mum are probably inside already," Cedric replied. "He always uses a bottle of the best Irish whiskey as a Portkey and presents it to the chief. He'll floo back to the Ministry when he's finished here. St. Mungo's sends a medical team, but I don't know what they use for a Portkey; maybe they come by floo."

"They come by floo," the Ravenclaw replied.

"So are you going to sit with your parents?" she asked.

"No, I'm here to work, but I will get to have a little visit with them at lunch," he said with a grin.

A village woman came to the door, wiping her hands on her apron. "Are all of you from Hogwarts then?" she asked. Then, without waiting for an answer, she started issuing orders. "Line up, cross-ways here, so I can get your names and give you your marching orders."

Assignments were given for serving and cleaning, assisting with food preparation, and security. The Ravenclaws reminded her that he was there for the medical team, as he was in training, and got out of bottle washing. The Durmstrang student was reassigned to the job, and did not look thrilled about it.

"Throughout the day, I will rotate the assignments," the woman informed them, "so that you all may have an opportunity to earn tips." The Durmstrang student looked pleased at the news, and joked with the Ravenclaw about tips from the tipsy.

Inside the building the air felt as if it was sparkling with magic.

"Stay away from the tapestry," the supervisor said, pointing to a corner of the room where a large green curtain hung. "The Wee Folk have a huge basin of beer behind it, that they're using as a sort of bubble bath. And watch out when some of them coming running out. They'll be wearing foam or nothing. Madam Rosmerta will be making sure that the beer doesn't run out there."

Hermione spent an hour putting whipped crème on tiny Irish coffees. For the next hour she was wiping tables and picking up used mugs and dinnerware. Then she had a break, just in time to watch some of the dancers perform their sets, and then it was back to work.

She was kept busy the whole of the day, except for her lunch and breaks, which she spent visiting and laughing with the Leprechauns. They knew her neighborhood, and the house she grew up in, and remembered her when she was a child, before her Hogwarts letter. "Aye, lass, we watch, but we don't meddle," she was informed. "Magic folk are what we are, no matter how the books list us: We are what we are."

"Sing, children, sing!" some of the Leprechauns ordered the students. Four or five or the students complied, and the Leprechauns laughed with delight and applauded.

All day there was music and talk, dancing and romancing among the Leprechauns, and they were free with their tips of Leprechaun gold and free with the advice and stories that they told the Wizarding folk as they served them.

Hagrid came by for a brief visit, sang some songs, drank to their health, and left while he was still steady. Most of the invited wizards and witches, including Mr. and Mrs. Diggory, left after a lunch. Finally, only the serving staff and the Leprechauns were in the Hall.

Twilight fell, and the party ended. The Leprechauns left, giggling and weaving as they went out the front door and, once outside, vanished into the night. The students helped pack up the tiny tables and clean the hall, and then the villagers bid them a hearty goodnight.

The tired but cheerful students returned to the castle by wand-light, their pockets full of Leprechaun gold, singing songs that they had heard that day, though they were in the process of forgetting the words. Hermione found it liberating to sing, and sang out joyfully and without restraint.

The group fell quiet at they approached the Great Doors, and entered into the Great Hall, the last to arrive for dinner.

Hermione sat down between Ron and Harry, both who had left her more than enough room. Seamus sat down opposite to her, and the other students went to the other tables.

"Where have you been at today?" Ron demanded to know. "The weather was terrible, and all we could do was stay inside or drown."

"We've been having a grand time today," Seamus answered cheerfully

_Ron really does need some cheering up,_ Hermione thought, _and Harry needs some luck. _She dipped her hand into her robe's pocket, but the magical gold was gone.


End file.
